With the arrival of an aging society, the development of countermeasures and preventive methods against bone and joint diseases/motor organ diseases such as osteoarthritis has been attracting attention as an urgent social task. In Japan, the estimated number of osteoporosis patients is about ten million, and the estimated number of osteoarthritis patients is seven to ten million. The number of patients having impairments that affect daily life tends to increase year by year. Most of the treatments of joint diseases/motor organ diseases are guidance for improving daily movements (muscle exercises, use of supporters/braces, and the like) and symptomatic therapies using anti-inflammatory analgesic agents, efficacies of which are not satisfactory. Articular symptoms worsen with age, and surgical treatments (using artificial joints and the like) are being selected for cases with osteoarticular destruction or alignment irregularities. However, these surgical treatments have many issues such as cost and infection, and furthermore, some patients are forced to replace their artificial joints after several years or several decades due to longevity.
Preventive methods and early countermeasures are required for motor organ diseases since tissues get damaged with time following disease onset, and articular cartilage tissues are extremely poor in repairability. However, neither effective treatments nor medical techniques have yet been established. Therefore, the establishment of novel pharmaceutical agents and therapeutic strategies showing a clinical efficacy against age-related motor organ diseases is urgently needed to maintain high activities of daily living (ADL) in an aging society.
In the process of bone and joint disease formation, deterioration of bone/chondrocyte environment (degeneration of osteocartilaginous matrix caused by external stress, following enzymatic degradation, inflammation, immune response, and the like) decreases the homeostasis/repairability of osteoarticular tissues, and articular degeneration/destruction progresses with time. Among inducers of motor organ diseases, oxygen free radicals (oxidative stress) are most important. All somatic cells produce reactive oxygen species during the process of cellular respiration (mitochondrial respiratory chain function: energy production), which is the root of vital activity. Decrease of cellular respiratory chain function and antioxidative enzyme activity due to aging and various external stresses, cause excessive reactive oxygen (oxygen free radicals), and are suggested to be closely associated with etiologic factors/pathological conditions of diseases involved with aging such as degenerative diseases and cancers.
Fullerene (C60) is a nano-carbon material that inhibits generation/leakage of reactive oxygen species. Fullerene (C60) has been suggested to have a strong free radical capturing/scavenging ability, and to have effects of regulating the cellular environment against various cellular catabolisms (cellular function/activity decrease, cell death), and maintaining and enhancing cellular functions (Non-Patent Documents 1 to 27).
Moreover, super-lubricating systems with no dynamic friction that utilize molecular motions of fullerene have been recently developed, and fullerene is expected to be applied as a lubricant for micro/nanomachines and the like (Patent Document 1 and Non-Patent Document 28). Fullerene constantly rotates by Brownian motion, and super-lubricating systems with a close-to-zero dynamic friction coefficient due to the rotation actions of fullerene molecules have been observed. This suggests that fullerene can become a lubricant with an extremely high performance.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Kokai Publication No. 2003-06279 (unexamined, published Japanese patent application)    Non-Patent Document 1: Li C, et al., Org Biomol Chem. 2004 Dec. 7, 2(23):3464-9    Non-Patent Document 2: Mirkov S M, et al., Nitric Oxide. 2004 September, 11(2):201-7    Non-Patent Document 3: Zhang T H, et al., Org Biomol Chem. 2003 Dec. 21, 1(24):4403-7    Non-Patent Document 4: Wei Y, et al., Bioelectrochemistry. 2003 October, 61(1-2):51-6    Non-Patent Document 5: Yamakoshi Y, et al., J Am Chem Soc. 2003 Oct. 22, 125(42):12803-9    Non-Patent Document 6: Wolff D J, et al., Arch Biochem Biophys. 2002 Mar. 15, 399(2):130-41    Non-Patent Document 7: Huang S S, et al., Pharmacology. 2002 February, 64(2):91-7    Non-Patent Document 8: Chien C T, et al., J Am Soc Nephrol. 2001 May, 12(5):973-82    Non-Patent Document 9: Wolff D J, et al., Biochemistry. 2001 Jan. 9, 40(1):37-45    Non-Patent Document 10: Jin H, et al., J Neurosci Res. 2000 Nov. 15, 62(4):600-7    Non-Patent Document 11: Fumelli C, et al., J Invest Dermatol. 2000 November, 115(5):835-41    Non-Patent Document 12: Lai H S, et al., Transplant Proc. 2000 September, 32(6):1272-4    Non-Patent Document 13: Bensasson R V, et al., Free Radic Biol Med. 2000 Jul. 1, 29(1):26-33    Non-Patent Document 14: Wolff D J, et al., Arch Biochem Biophys. 2000 Jun. 15, 378(2):216-23    Non-Patent Document 15: Lee Y T, et al., Proc Soc Exp Biol Med. 2000 June, 224(2):69-75    Non-Patent Document 16: Lai H S, et al., World J Surg. 2000 April, 24(4):450-4    Non-Patent Document 17: Wang I C, et al., J Med Chem. 1999 Nov. 4, 42(22):4614-20    Non-Patent Document 18: Chueh S C, et al., Transplant Proc. 1999 August, 31(5):1976-7    Non-Patent Document 19: Huang Y L, et al., Eur J Biochem. 1998 May 15, 254(1):38-43    Non-Patent Document 20: Lu L H, et al., Br J Pharmacol. 1998 March, 123(6):1097-102    Non-Patent Document 21: Chen H H, et al., Toxicol Pathol. 1998 January-February, 26(1):143-51    Non-Patent Document 22: Satoh M, et al., Gen Pharmacol. 1997 September, 29(3):345-51    Non-Patent Document 23: Satoh M, et al., Eur J Pharmacol. 1997 May 30, 327(2-3):175-81    Non-Patent Document 24: Tsai M C, et al., J Pharm Pharmacol. 1997 April, 49(4):438-45    Non-Patent Document 25: Dugan L L, et al., Neurobiol Dis. 1996, 3(2):129-35    Non-Patent Document 26: Huang S S, et al., Free Radic Biol Med. 2001 Mar. 15, 30(6):643-9    Non-Patent Document 27: Publisher, Takashi Yoshida; NTS Co.; Creation and Application of Nano-materials by means of Self-Organization, Sixth lecture “Self-Organization in Nano-Carbon Materials” 153-178, 2004    Non-Patent Document 28: Superlubricty of C60 Intercalated Graphite Films. Kouji Miura and Daisuke Tsuda, e-J. Surf. Sci. Nanotech. Vol. 3 (2005) 21-23, C60 Molecular Bearings. K. Miura, S. Kamiya and N. Sasaki, Physical Review Letters, Vol. 90, No. 5, 055509 (2003)